


Derek, I Shrunk the Pack

by frozensight



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-04
Updated: 2013-06-04
Packaged: 2017-12-13 20:18:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/828432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozensight/pseuds/frozensight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles never really expected it to work until it did, and then he had to explain to Derek what exactly science had done to his pack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Derek, I Shrunk the Pack

**Author's Note:**

> If you've ever seen "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" then you know exactly what this fic is about.

It had been a work in progress for so long that Stiles himself had come to think of it as just another unfinished project. Sure, he would occasionally tinker with it, redirecting wires or fiddling with the programming, but for the most part it just sat in the middle of the attic, collecting dust and incomplete. Stiles hadn't even named it other than "that thing he sometimes works on" and he wasn't even sure exactly what he was trying to accomplish with it, other than making it look cool. Regardless, he kept it, saving it for rainy days and moments of boredom.

* * *

When Stiles came home from working up at the local community college's library on Friday, he expected Scott and some of the rest of the pack to be sitting in the living room playing video games, most likely bickering and arguing over why someone should have won that race. Instead he was greeted by silence, which was ultimately far more distracting than the noise to which he was accustomed.

"Scott? Isaac?  _Boyd_?" Stiles called out as he dropped his bag near the front door, slowly walking further into the house. He peeked his head around the corner into the living room and whispered, "Erica?"

Only the tv's static greeted him, meaning someone  _had_ come in and tried to switch the tv to video games but got distracted halfway through.

Staring at the still full cups on the coffee table and the way the controllers were set out, Stiles mumbled, "This is definitely not good."

* * *

"What do you  _mean_ you don't know what happened?" It took a lot of willpower for Stiles to not deviate from Derek's eyes. His eyes, by the way, were still their normal hazel, but Stiles could tell by the way Derek's hand was beginning to clench that super scary alpha male was gonna come out if his betas were not located soon. "Where are they, Stiles?!"

"I don't know! I came home from work and the stuff is laid out like they were here, but they aren't anywhere in the house!" Derek glared at Stiles for a bit longer before he sighed and looked away, examining the living room for himself.

"And you tried calling them?"

Stiles held out his hand as if he'd been about to say of course he'd remembered to try and call them, who did Derek think he was? A complete idiot? But he paused because he hadn't. "...no."

" _What_?" Derek slowly stood up from where he'd been crouching by the tv, scenting or whatever it was werewolves did, and Stiles was pretty sure that Derek was actually mad now, even though his eyes hadn't gone red alert.

"Calm down, Wolfman, it just slipped my mind ok!" Fumbling with his cell phone, Stiles immediately dialed Scott's number.

" _Stiles_."

"It's ringing shut up!"

It rang a few more times before someone picked up. A frantic, high pitched noise came out of the top of Stiles' cell phone, and while the cadence of it sounded like Scott, he was also pretty sure his best friend hadn't been castrated recently. Derek was listening intently though, and Stiles suddenly noticed Derek had moved five feet closer while they had been waiting for Scott to answer.

Stiles had been busy watching Derek listen to the squeaks, as if that would help him figure out what was being said when he realized that he could understand one word that the voice was saying.

"Stiles? Stiles?!"

"Ho-leeee crap, Scott why do you sound like you went off and joined Alvin and the Chipmunks?"

Derek was frowning, not like that was unusual, as he said, "Scott said that they were about to play video games when they thought they heard something upstairs." There was more hurried squeaking, which Stiles was annoyed he couldn't decipher, but thankfully super alpha wolf hearing came in use in times like these, and Derek continued translating. "They went to investigate, and they found out that a raccoon or something had broken into the attic. Then Erica saw the sheet that had been pulled off some sort of machine, and there was a flash and..." Derek broke off to stare incredulously at the phone, which just continued squeaking, until he shook his head and finished, "And now everything is really big and they're really small?"

The question wasn't so much directed at Stiles as it was at Scott, who seemed to take offense at the notion that he'd be lying as the fervor of squeaking intensified. Derek snorted as he listened to the argument that was emitting from Stiles' phone and he started to appear to be more amused than angry.

"Care to share with the class, Derek?"

"He says that if we don't believe him that we should come up to the attic and see if we can't reverse whatever it was that the ray gun did."

It clearly sounded like Derek was mildly skeptical about the whole thing, but Stiles was suddenly remembering his forgotten project with the not quite yet known purpose that had been housed up in the attic for months now and he let out a long hiss of uncertainty from between his teeth. Derek gave Stiles his best "what the fuck, man?" look and Stiles couldn't help but laugh as he said into his phone, "We'll be right there Scott, just get to a place we can't step on you and stay put." He hung up and rubbed his forehead with one of his hands before he faced Derek again. In an awed voice he murmured, "I can't believe it actually worked."

Derek's eyes were narrowing again, and Stiles almost made a quip about how that seemed to be his default expression. "What do you mean  _it worked_?"

Stiles opened his mouth, an explanation full of terminologies and basic engineering at the ready, when he stopped himself, opting instead to pat Derek on the shoulder and say, "Let's just go check out the attic, alright?"

* * *

"Stiles, what the fuck is that?"

He wanted to be offended that Derek was so crass about something he'd spent weeks of his life working on, but as he also stared at the machinery that took up a good portion of the attic, he could see where Derek's confusion came from.

It was supposed to resemble a gun, specifically a grounded machine gun or something similar, but in all actuality it just looked like a small canon with wires sticking out and a motherboard hanging precariously from the back. Lights flickered on and off all around it, and Stiles almost wondered how before he remembered that one of his last modifications had been to give it a replaceable battery. It looked like it had been pushed a little and part of the sheet he'd used to cover it was still draped over part of it. Ignoring Derek, Stiles immediately went over to the small control panel at the back of the machine and began trying to figure out what exactly had gone wrong--well, _right_.

"Well that's...interesting."

" _Stiles_."

Spinning around to face Derek, who was still in the doorway of the attic, not quite all the way inside as if he was wary of the room. Stiles gave him a smile that said "hey I may have broke something but you still love me right?" and the frown he got in return definitely said "no."

"The good news is: my machine worked as it was kind of intended to and everyone's ok!" Derek remained silent and just furrowed his eyebrows as if telling him to go on. "The bad news is: certain members of the pack may, or may not, have been shrunk to about the size of ants and I'm not exactly sure how to turn them back."

For a moment, Stiles was sure that Derek was going to kill him, or at the very least cause him some incredibly painful bodily harm. However, he was prevented from such courses of action when Derek's cell phone went off.

"Hello?  _Jackson_?" Derek listened quietly as another squeaky voice told him about something, Stiles presumed it was about where they were or about Jackson's grievances at having been brought into this mess. Derek glanced around as he took in Jackson's words, and Stiles wondered what he was doing until Derek went over to a box in the corner of the attic and knelt down. His eyes flashed red as he put away his cell phone, and Stiles realized he was looking at their miniaturized pack members.

Stiles walked over and knelt beside him, trying in vain to see their friends without looking like an idiot. "Who's all been turned into the world's smallest action figure set?"

"Scott, Jackson, Boyd, and Erica. The raccoon or opossum might also have been shrunk, but they have no idea for sure."

"Lovely. Great.  _Fantastic_. Just what I need, a tiny, imperceptible rodent running around my house." From the surface of the box, a sudden burst of squeaks erupted, and judging from Derek's facial expression, they weren't saying anything nice. Stiles rolled his eyes, guessing that they were taking fault in his priorities. "You guys we can find and eventually turn back. Who the hell knows what will become of the raccoon-opossum."

Derek tilted his head towards the box so he could hear them better before he grinned and said, "Jackson is making a rather convincing argument for why you should be more worried about what he'll do instead."

"Of course he is, but he can stuff it because it's up to me to get them back to normal."

"How long will that take, exactly, if you're not even sure what caused your monstrosity of a machine to work?"

Looking back at his pitiful creation, Stiles whispered, "That is a really good question."

* * *

 It took Stiles approximately twenty-seven seconds to come to the conclusion that he needed help. It took him another five to think of who to call. It took fifteen minutes for that person to arrive at his house.

"What's this I hear about shrink rays?" asked Lydia as she strutted into the attic, nose wrinkling at the amount of dust everywhere, but otherwise not saying a word about it. Before Stiles could even say anything, she was already at the control panel, pressing buttons and examining wires. He sighed, knowing that the problem was, if anything, in far more capable hands, and turned to explain recent events to Allison, who had followed Lydia at the first mention of Scott being in potential trouble.

"Where is he?" Stiles just pointed to the box in the corner which Derek was now sitting by, his arms resting on his knees. Allison walked over and sat down on her knees next to the box, her eyes gazing over the entirety of the box before Derek pointed to where their friends were. She tried to see them, but soon gave up. Instead she looked over at Lydia and asked, "What do you think Lydia? Can you do it?"

Lydia didn't even bother to deviate her eyes from her work as she replied, "Of course. It just might take awhile to figure out this wiring." She did spare a couple seconds to frown at Stiles. "It's a wonder this thing even turns on, considering the atrocious state of its circuits. Were you drunk when you put this together?"

" _No_ ," huffed Stiles as he leaned against the wall, "I was just making it up as I went. I never anticipated a group of werewolves chasing a raccoon into my attic and accidentally flipping the switch."

"Well, you're lucky that that raccoon managed to climb all over this... _thing_ first because in the process it managed to do what you couldn't. It's very unstable and I need to arrange the wires properly so that we can guarantee that it will change them back to their normal sizes instead of say shrinking them even further." She sighed as she held wires in both hands. "Now get over here and make sure this circuit board doesn't move while I work."

* * *

A couple hours and a pot of coffee later, Lydia with the occasional assistance of Stiles, had fixed the machine to at least where it could theoretically change their friends back.

"How sure are you that this will work?" asked Derek after he moved the mini-wolves from the box to a spot on the floor where they could be transformed back.

"Hypothetically, I'm 100% sure, but realistically, I'd say about 67%." That caused Allison, Derek, and Stiles to exchange looks, but Lydia rolled her eyes and added, "It's got a better chance at working now than it did earlier, so even if I'm off, they'll still be restored to their proper size."

None of them could exactly argue with that, least of all Stiles, so they stood back and watched as she pressed some buttons and flipped a switch. A beam of light shot out of the machine and hit the floor where Derek had left their fellow pack members. In only a few seconds the figures that they couldn't see grew until they were recognizable as their four friends. Lydia powered down the machine after the beam ended, a triumphant smirk on her lips.

Allison and Scott were already hugging and kissing, Boyd and Erica were silently holding hands and glaring in Stiles' general direction, and Jackson had already decided that he was done and had turned to leave.

"Good job, Lydia," said Derek as he observed the wellbeing of his pack. She nodded before following Jackson out of the attic as Boyd and Erica left to go see why Isaac hadn’t shown up yet. "Stiles?"

Stiles looked at Derek, not sure if he should be expecting pain or humiliation.

Derek placed a hand on Stiles' shoulder and with a straight face said, "No more science projects."


End file.
